Who we are

The CARICOM Secretariat is the principal administrative organ of the Community and is headed by a Secretary General who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Community.

Mission

To contribute, in support of Member States, to the improvement of the quality of life of the People of the Community and the development of an innovative and productive society in partnership with institutions and groups working towards attaining a people-centred, sustainable and internationally competitive Community.

THE CARIBBEAN DEVELOPMENT FUND (CDF) ANOTHER
BRICK IN THE BUILDING IN THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY
- ITS OWN STORY

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown,
Guyana) The story of Caribbean Integration captures
the attention of many, as we reflect at this time on
the road travelled, the milestones achieved and the
opportunities missed. Journalists and social pundits
act as conduits for sometimes emotive discussion as
we pursue the search for solutions for survival and
prosperity as a Caribbean Community. Such discourse
usually harks back to the failed West Indies
Federation and is punctuated with nostalgia by the
early dreams for a united Caribbean Nation.

When we fast forward to today’s thrust for the
CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and its
varied challenges, the discussion is just as heated
and the rhetoric stirred with each incremental step
achieved towards unity. While it is easy to be
critical of the pace of Community building, a few do
take note of the efforts in creating the
institutions and regimes which give life to this
Caribbean movement through the Revised Treaty of
Chaguaramas. One such institution is the CARICOM
Development Fund (CDF), which, even in its fledgling
status, forms a critical part of this Region’s
design for engaging equitably with each other. The
idea for the Fund is borrowed substantially from a
similar mechanism successfully employed by the
European Union (EU) in helping to bring certain of
its member states - Ireland, Spain, Portugal and
Greece - up to a certain economic level to assist
them to effectively participate and benefit from the
integration process.

The CDF, its objectives and beginnings

The CDF, was established under Article 158 of the
Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas “for the purpose of
providing financial or technical assistance to
disadvantaged countries, regions and sectors.”
It is the centre-piece of a regime to address the
disparities among the Member States of the Community
which may result from the implementation of the CSME.
The signing of the Agreement Relating to the
Operations of the Fund in July 2008, followed
years of negotiations by CARICOM Member States
regarding the principles, size and structure of a
regional development fund. There was a sense of
achievement when the Agreement was finally signed
and technicians employed by the CDF got down to the
task of making the mechanism operational.

In an interview, CDF Chief Executive Officer
Ambassador Lorne McDonnough said “...The CDF
start-up team was always confident it would meet the
projected launch date...” Despite this
confidence he admitted that “...along the way
there were always the glitches and frustrating
delays that called for an extra dose of perseverance
as well as the need to step back and revisit the
problem with a fresh resolve”. Ambassador
McDonnough noted that heightened expectations and
the desire to see the CDF operational in the
shortest possible time, meant that Member States
sometimes underestimated the work which had to be
done to make the CDF ready for full operations.

Notwithstanding all the challenges, on 24 August
2009, in keeping with expectations, the CDF
officially opened its doors. This was achieved after
nine months of feverish effort by the start-up staff
to put systems in place to allow for the receipt of
requests for loans and grants.

The Start-up

The CDF, as established in the Agreement, has
its own legal identity but is linked to CARICOM
through several Ministerial Councils. The CDF is
governed by its own corporate board and is managed
by the CEO. Ambassador McDonnough assumed the post
of CEO in November 2008 joining Ms. Fay Housty, now
Senior Advisor, Corporate Governance and Development
and Mr. Lenox Forte, now Manager, Corporate
Development and Programming. These two officers were
seconded from the CARICOM Secretariat.

The CDF began its existence from three temporary
offices within CARICOM’s CSME Unit in the Tom
Adams Financial Centre, Bridgetown, Barbados.
The initial team spent the first three months
looking for alternative office space, preparing the
work plan and budget, seeking funding for the
preparation of its governance rules and procedures
in addition to beginning the process of recruiting
the core executive and administrative staff.

Staff members recount that those months were as
difficult, frustrating and interesting as one would
expect with any embryonic organisation. During this
time staff brought their computers from home and
used personal cell phones and multi-tasked to get
the Office established. With several ten to twelve
hour days, colleagues buckled down to the tasks of
even assembling office furniture with the
realisation that the job had to be done.

The CDF moved into its current temporary office
in the renovated Old Town Hall Building in
Bridgetown at the end of January. This space was
provided by the Government of Barbados for which the
Organisation is grateful. It continues to work with
the Government of Barbados on acquiring its more
permanent premises which it hopes to occupy by the
middle of 2010.

Staffing

The provision of offices allowed the Organisation
to enhance its recruitment process. In February, an
Executive Assistant, Ms. Angela Parris was appointed
and in April, the Legal Counsel and Board Secretary
Mr. Arden Warner assumed duty. The Director of the
Regional Development Division, Dr Deryck Brown, and
the Director of the Social and Cohesion Fund, Mr.
St. Bernard Sebastian, came on board in July and
August respectively. In October, Mr. Wayne Vitalis,
the Financial Controller joined the team to complete
a core staff of eight professionals. In keeping with
the commitment to keep staff costs at minimum,
additional skills will be outsourced as needed.

Capitalisation of the Fund

All Member States are required to contribute to
the Capital of the Fund on the basis of a Formula
agreed on by the CARICOM Heads of Government. The
CDF is currently capitalised at US$79.9 million.
It is envisaged that by the end of the year Member
States would have contributed approximately US$87
million. The CDF also has the remit to raise a
further US$130 million from donors and
friendly states. The CEO was recently quoted as
saying that “...The crisis in world financial
markets has made this more challenging...” and
asserting that “...the CDF will aggressively go
after the target set. We are working very closely
with the Chairman of the Resource Mobilisation Task
Force, Prime Minister of Barbados, the Honourable
David Thompson. That Task Force was established by
the Conference of Heads of Government, and these
efforts will be redoubled in the coming months now
that the CDF has commenced full operations...”

The CDF has also benefited from technical
assistance grants of US$149,000 from the Caribbean
Development Bank (CDB) and €834,000 from the
European Union (EU) Institutional Support Facility
in addition to a recent contribution of €300,000
signalling the start of a closer relationship
between the Government of Finland and CARICOM. The
Government of Turkey also provided support to the
countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean
States (OECS) to assist them in making their
contribution to the CDF’s capital fund.

Beneficiaries of the Fund

Whilst all Members of the CSME contributing to
the CDF are eligible to receive financial and
technical assistance support from the Fund, only the
designated disadvantaged countries - the LDCs (OECS
and Belize) and Guyana (as a Highly Indebted Poor
Country) will have access to resources during the
first contribution cycle. To identify the needs of
the eligible Member States and to inform the CDF
Board as it signed off on governance rules and
regulations, needs assessment consultations were
undertaken to the LDCs and Guyana.

Informed by these consultations and consistent
with its remit to address disparities resulting from
the implementation of the CSME, the CDF will focus
on disbursing concessionary loans and grants that
address objectives related to the implementation of
the CSME, preferably small-to-medium size projects
of a short implementation period. The details of the
criteria for project selection can be found in the
CDF Appraisal and Disbursement guidelines on
www.csmeonline.org .

In an attempt to guarantee the sustainability of
the CDF capital fund, the size of direct loans will
range between US$0.5million and US$ 4million; the
minimum size of grants will be US$20,000. In each
Contribution Cycle, the Board will earmark up to
US$10 million to finance private sector projects
that are regional or sub-regional in scope. The CDF
will also look to work with its development partners
in leveraging the technical assistance it can
provide.

The Next Stage

Staff Members of the CDF are now looking to the
next stage of its operations, one which will see the
institution having a direct impact on alleviating
the effects of whatever disparities and
disadvantages arise out of the operations of the
CSME, all in an effort to make a success of this
Community’s flagship enterprise.